Another Exciting Opportunity for Teen Dancers

by karen Krolak

Back in April, Monkeyhouse interviewed Andrea Blesso about the Movement at the Mills program at the Boston Center for the Arts (BCA). This year the BCA also created a dance residency program where artists/companies are given time to rehearse and develop new works. As part of the application process, artists must propose a workshop, informal performance, or open rehearsal that will invite people into their creative process. When I saw this teen workshop developed by Annie Kloppenberg announced on the Dance Action Network, I knew many of my students at Impulse Dance Center would be interested.

If you are free this Saturday, I highly recommend participating (if you are a teen dancer) or attending the performance at 4. Keep your fingers and toes crossed and perhaps, I will even have a chance to interview Annie in the next day or so.

Contemporary Dance Workshop and Performance For Teens

with Boston Center for the Arts Dance Resident Artist Annie Kloppenberg

and NYC-based Company members Kendra Portier and Alli Ruszkowski

with Boston Project Dancers

Saturday, June 26th
workshop 1:00-3:30
performance 4:00
Calderwood Pavilion, 2nd floor,
527 Tremont Street, Boston 02116
$25 per student

Workshop Description:

In this workshop, dancers will first take a short master class with company artists and will then have the opportunity to learn repertory and engage in the creative process of making and performing a version of the company’s current work, “Expert Witness.”

This workshop is targeted toward teens with dance experience. Class will learn choreography and build structured improvisations based on Kloppenberg’s current work in progress “Expert Witness”. Workshop dancers will experience the collaborative working process of a
professional company. Then will create a new version of “Expert Witness” to perform in a post-workshop performance for friends and family at 4:00.

Class will focus on developing articulate, dynamic, and expressive bodies in a dialogue between rigorous technical practice and targeted improvisational exercises. Movement phrases play with control, abandon, and their intersection, emphasizing principles of weight, efficiency, specificity, and torque to illuminate the patterning of movement rather than the action of it alone. Dancers will explore virtuosity and subtle performance textures, increasing dynamic range and depth. We will dance out, dance big, sweat, and have a great time.

Class is appropriate for teen dancers with experience or interest in modern/contemporary dance.

Please email anniekloppenberg@ gmail.com with any questions.
Pre-registration is suggested to ensure your spot! Email Andrea Blesso at ablesso@bcaonline. org to register.

Instructor Bios:

Annie Kloppenberg’s recent choreography has been supported by residencies or commissions from the Boston Center for the Arts, Dance Theater Workshop, The Taft School, OhioDance & Dublin Arts Council, and presented at such venues as the Judson Church, Green Street Studios, and Dancespace Center (now DNA). She has been a project dancer with the Bebe Miller Company, performed in work by Sara Pearson & Patrik Widrig, Shani Collins, Rebecca Rice, Heidi Henderson, Karl Rogers, and Ashley Thorndike, among others. Annie performs and teaches nationally as a member of Like You Mean It, an improvisational ensemble. Annie has taught throughout the greater Boston Area and is on faculty at Colby College.

Kendra Portier trained and performed with BalletMet and later received a BFA in dance from The Ohio State University. Her professional work has been with choreographers such as Lisa Race/Scott Cohen, Jennifer Nugent, Hoi Polloi, Nicole Wolcott Dance, David Dorfman Dance, Vanessa Justice Dance, MVWorks, and collaborations with Launch Movement Experiment. Kendra teaches regularly as a guest artist at Dance New Amsterdam, is on faculty at Hunter College and Monroe Dance Academy, and runs Dancepantsnyc, a community-based investigation of movement philosophies. She has been a guest artist and/or presented work at DNA, 92nd Street Y, Triskelion Arts, OSU, Hunter College, Judson Church, Green Street Studios, and continues to actively pursue her own choreography.

Alli Ruszkowski has taught at Peridance, Monroe Dance Academy, and is a teaching artist in the Dance Exposure Project through Connecticut Ballet. She has had the pleasure of working with MVWorks, Vanessa Justice Dance, Launch Movement Experiment, Julian Barnett, and Fivefour. Alli received a BFA in dance performance from the Ohio State University in 2003. She has also had the pleasure of studying at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Bates Dance Festival, and American Dance Festival NYC.